''Déformation professionnelle'' (, professional deformation or job conditioning) is a tendency to look at things from the point of view of one's own
profession
A profession is a field of Work (human activity), work that has been successfully professionalized. It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, professionals, who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are ...
or special
expertise
An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field or area of study. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognized a ...
, rather than from a broader or humane perspective. It is often translated as ''professional deformation'', though French ''
déformation'' can also be translated as ''distortion''. The implication is that
professional training
Professional development, also known as professional education, is learning that leads to or emphasizes education in a specific professional career field or builds practical job applicable skills emphasizing praxis in addition to the transferab ...
, and its related
socialization
In sociology, socialization (also socialisation – see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is the process of Internalisation (sociology), internalizing the Norm (social), norm ...
, often result in a distortion of the way one views the world. The Nobel laureate
Alexis Carrel
Alexis Carrel (; 28 June 1873 – 5 November 1944) was a French surgeon and biologist who spent most of his scientific career in the United States. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturi ...
has observed that "
ery specialist, owing to a well-known professional bias, believes that he understands the entire human being, while in reality he only grasps a tiny part of him."
History
"Déformation professionnelle" was used in nineteenth-century medicine to describe a bodily deformity caused by one's occupation.
As a term in psychology, it was likely introduced by the Belgian sociologist , or the Russian-American sociologist
Pitirim Sorokin
Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin (; ; – 10 February 1968) was a Russian American sociologist and political activist, who contributed to the social cycle theory.
Sorokin was a professor at Saint Petersburg Imperial University, three times impris ...
.
The colloquial term nerdview describes a similar tendency.
See also
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Bias blind spot
The bias blind spot is the cognitive bias of recognizing the impact of biases on the judgment of others, while failing to see the impact of biases on one's own judgment. The term was created by Emily Pronin, a social psychologist from Princeton Uni ...
*
Law of the instrument
The law of the instrument, law of the hammer, Maslow's hammer, or golden hammer is a cognitive bias that involves an over-reliance on a familiar tool. Abraham Maslow wrote in 1966, "it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat ...
*
Marketing myopia
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Occupational psychosis
References
External links
Cognitive biases
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